WHAT’S NEW Drilling equipment Brunner who?

Brunner Canada has an image problem. Not long ago the company’s drill steel and bits were considered to be of less than the highest quality — similar to stuff your local garageman could churn out but which failed under tough, hardrock mining conditions. But that was five or six years ago. Since then the company has brought in two Canadian mining men to manage its Mississauga, Ont., manufacturing plant and things have changed markedly. Paul Brunner, formerly chief mine engineer and superintendent of the Nanisivik zinc-lead mine in the Northwest Territories, and Robert Stewart, a sales representative for Atlas Copco for several years, joined the company in 1979-80. Together they have taken Brunner Canada from the netherworld of drilling products manufacturing to a respectable fifth position in supplying drill steel and bits in Canada — no small feat if you consider that this is probably the biggest market for mining drill accessories in the world.

In an industry that’s dominated by four big multinational manufacturing corporations with head offices offshore (Atlas Copco-Sandvik of Sweden, Fagersta-Secoroc also of Sweden, Boart International of South Africa and Kenroc of the U.S.), this home- grown drill steel and bit maker has had to struggle to earn respect on its own home turf. Last year Brunner generated about $6 million in revenues with 75% coming from its percussion drilling division.

Although most of the company’s accounts are relatively small, some are prestigious. For example, Brunner now supplies steel and bits to the Page- Williams gold mine at Hemlo, the underground portion of the Detour Lake gold mine in northeastern Ontario and Westmin’s expanding hw copper-zinc-gold mine in British Columbia. Its latest triumph came early this year in Timmins, Ont. Through the dogged determination of Albert Nelmapius, co-owner of Hardrock Drill, one of Brunner’s distributors, the company won a hard- fought battle to supply newly designed 4 1/2 – and 6 1/2 -in in-the-hole button bits to Falconbridge’s Kidd Creek zinc- copper-silver mine. The contract is for the next two years, but it will not be easy to maintain, according to sales manager Stewart. Other companies are welcome to try and better Brunner’s drilling performance using their own bits during the life of the contract, so Brunner will have to hustle to maintain a level of excellence.

“It took us two years of hard work and a lot of enthusiasm,” says Brun ner’s general manager Paul Brunner (who is no relation to Fred Brunner, the Canadian owner of the company). “Despite the fact that we are probably the fifth largest supplier of drill steel and bits in Canada, we are still perceived as a small shop operation. In many cases we are not even given the chance to bid on the large contracts,” Paul Brunner says.

With a 65,000- sq-ft plant in Mississauga, Brunner Canada can hardly be considered a small shop operation. The plant, near Toronto’s international airport, has expanded twice since Brunner originally bought it in 1969. The first 5,000-sq-ft expansion, in 1984, was made to accommodate the acquisition of Tri-M, another drilling accessory manufacturer. The most recent expansion houses a furnace used to heat-treat drill steel — an acquisition necessitated by stiff offshore competition.

Fred Brunner also owns three manufacturing plants in the U.S. — two run by Brunner & Lay and the other by The Timkin Co. Timkin was recently purchased by Brunner & Lay, so all three operations will likely be merged into one in order to streamline their product lines and avoid duplication.

The growth of Brunner is indicative of the viability of this sector of the industry. Because competition is keen, the climate for innovation is right. Some of the new products and developments that have caught our attention in the drilling industry over the past six months include: